Dallas County Health and Human Services reported one death, and 292 new positive cases of COVID-19, today, Aug. 31, as well as 168 cases from previous months.  The total case count in Dallas County is 71,630 with 902 total deaths to date.

The total number of probable cases in Dallas County is 2,946, including 8 probable deaths from COVID-19.

The total new cases today include 235 from Texas Department of State Health Services in June (9), July (159) and August (67).

The additional death being reported today is a man in his 50’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He was found deceased at home and had underlying high risk health conditions.

Over the weekend Sachse reported the following COVID-positive cases:

From August 8th through 21st, 393 school-aged children between 5 to 18 years of age were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Dallas County. About 50% of these cases were high school age. By zip code of residence, 203 (51%) of these children were projected to have been enrolled in Dallas ISD schools.

Of all confirmed cases requiring hospitalization to date, more than two-thirds have been under 65 years of age. Diabetes has been an underlying high-risk health condition reported in about a third of all hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 34 was 206.

The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 continues to decline but remains high, with 11.0% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 34. Of the total confirmed deaths reported to date, about 26% have been associated with long-term care facilities. New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate, with a more detailed summary report updated Tuesdays and Fridays.

Local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators in determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. Due to weekend reporting, new data will be available on Tuesday, September 1, 2020.

“Today we report 292 new cases of COVID-19 in Dallas County. While the total number of cases being reported today is 460, 168 of those are old cases from June and July from the State’s backlogged electronic laboratory reporting system. We continue to see our average number of daily cases decrease and tomorrow we will have an updated chart showing our rolling seven day average based on date of test collection, as well as new data on hospitalizations and ER visits. The trends are going in the right direction but we must continue to be diligent about mask wearing, social distancing, hand-washing and avoiding unnecessary trips and indoor places where masks cannot be or are not being worn one hundred percent of the time,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]